Moving and getting settled

I took a day of rec leave on the day of the handover and move, which - combined with the luck of my roster -gave me four and a half days off, all of which I spent madly unpacking and organising.

In amongst unpacking boxes and arranging cupboards, there were several trips out to Bunnings and Kmart for various odds and ends, including:

- a built-in bin for under the sink;

- shower door seals;

- door mountable baskets (for inside cupboards);

- hooks;

- storage/shelving units;

...and so much more - all of which I put together and installed.

I had people dropping by every so often to lend a hand, unpacking and hanging clothes, building flat pack furniture, or just checking out our new digs!

By the end of the weekend, I had the pantry organised to my OCD standards and found my magnets which made the new fridge feel more like ours. 

And to keep up my energy throughout those four days, I thrived on a diet consisting mainly of cold leftover pizza, berry crumble pie with ice-cream, and McDonald's - after all it was McHappy Day on Saturday!

It wasn't until the end of the fourth day that I finally sat down on my own couch, in my own home to relax, if only for a minute, and rest my aching back!

Aslan spent the entire first weekend hiding under our bed, Catty was a bit more adventurous and wanted to explore everything. They're quickly getting used to their new home now, but are anxious to get back to being 'free-range'. 

Catty is most intrigued by the cows in the field across the street and sits in our room at the front of the house gazing out at them on the hills.

Handover photos - internal

And now for the hand over photos of the inside of the house.

First of all, the entryway. This is taken from standing in the front doorway, right next to our bedroom doorway.

The niche was one of our extra package inclusions from Rawson, two niches we were able to choose the size and location of, the other is the 'hole' / half'-wall between the kitchen and the rumpus room. I'm going to buy some floating picture shelves to put in there with a collage of different size/patterned frames sitting on them.


Turning left from here takes you into the master bedroom. Here's a good example of our new blinds too - Holland blinds with two layers, on the outside a privacy screen that you can only see through one way but still lets in the light, and a second block-out blind layer. We have this set up in all the bedrooms.

You can see above that connecting to our bedroom is our glorious en suite and walk in wardrobe. Here are some closer shots of the en suite.

No photos of the walk in wardrobe - it's not that interesting. You can basically see it in the bedroom photos above, but otherwise just imagine three walls, a shelf and some poles! I've also bought two IKEA 'Malm' chest of drawer sets to add to my section to expand the amount of usable storage space. 

Further up the hallway you turn right into a small alcove hallway which accesses:
-  the garage, not very interesting but here's a photo anyway;
- the laundry, which I couldn't get any shots of as the angle is quite sharp; and
- the fourth bedroom which we're using for a study/guest room.

At the next hallway junction, where the hallway widens into the living areas, is the entrance to second and third bedroom and the main bathroom. 

These two bedrooms get so much natural light in the mornings - the cats have already scoped them out for prime sunbathing! They're all pretty much the same in terms of inclusions and windows etc. so I've just put a few sample pictures so you get an idea.

Next we come to the rumpus room, the only carpeted living area in the house.

From there, as you could see in the photos, it rolls through the half wall hole into the kitchen. My favourite part the of the house, with that pesky splash back that caused so many dramas.

From the kitchen the house extends back across the dining area (at the end of the entrance  hallway) to through to the lounge room at the very back of the house. With all the living areas combined it makes it feel much more homey, as well as making it so bright and open.

Handover photos - external

As promised, before filling the house with all of our junk, I pulled out my good camera for a 'handover photo shoot', capturing every aspect of the house while it's still brand new. 

The pictures just don't do the place justice though, especially inside. It's also quite hard to get pictures of all the rooms because of the angles and the size of the room, compared to the size of my lens!

First of all, here are the external pics. Just disregard the piles of dirt and bricks out the back as well - they're sitting there waiting for the landscaping in two weeks. Obviously, once that's completed it' going to look a LOT nicer! 

 

We have the keys, we're in!

On Wendesday, we were waiting with baited breath, on the edge of our seats, for the bank to transfer to go through. That final payment of $20-odd,000 that was between us and our house. By mid afternoon we were put out of our misery with a call from Rawson stating they were happy to accept the receipt of transfer I had sent through a few hours earlier. With that, we were booked in for handover first thing Thursday morning.

And so, bright and early on Thursday we met our site manager at the house and it was official, we had the keys, the place was ours!

Ben carried me across the threshold. six months after the wedding, better late than never!



Certificate of Occupancy and final payment

After five and a half weeks of arguments between Rawson and ACT Planning and Land Authority, they have finally issued our Certificate of Occupancy! And after all that, nothing ended up needing to be changed, they ended up signing off on it just based on the additional information provided regarding the installation of the splashback. Information that could have been given to them over a month ago had they just asked for it then, instead of umming and ahhing and drawing the whole process out as long as humanly possible!

Turns out, the A.C.T. building regulations and the A.C.T gas regulations are conflicting. One states that a splashback with less than 50% glass in it doesn't require heat treating (which makes sense considering the gyprock is anti-combustion), while the other states that a splashback incorporating any glass at all has to be heat treated.

Anyway, now with the C of O submitted to the bank, the bank have made the final payment to Rawson today, and we're in! Handover is tomorrow morning! I can't wait to unpack all of my brand new house stuff. I can't even remember half of what I've bought over the last year - it's been packed up for so long now. It'll be like Christmas!

In other news, we've booked the landscaping in for the 8th and 9th of November. Fences and retaining walls will go up and our moat of dust and mud will be transformed into a lush green garden... more like a low maintenance native garden, but you get the idea - no more dirt and mud!

I'll post a final 'build pictures' update tomorrow before we fill the house with stuff.

Blinds installation

Despite the issues with the Certificate of Compliance, thankfully we were still able to have the house opened up by the builder for the pre-arranged installation of the blinds the day after we flew back in from the USA.

 

We got the whole house fitted out with holland blinds by Dollar Curtains and Blinds. 

 

The living areas and bathrooms have just one layer, blockout blinds in 'Passive' from the Hunter Douglas 'Quay' Fabric range.

 

 

The bedrooms have two layers, the same blockout as the living rooms, as well as a semi-transparent privacy screen in 'White / White Pearl'.